Last night I interviewed Marty Nelson, president of the Deadwood Tournament Directors Association and poker manager at Saloon #10 for an upcoming show. He told me about the Deadwood Poker Shootout, a citywide no-limit Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament to be held on April 21, 22, & 23, 2006, with a $200,000 prize pool. But the big news was who would be in town to play in the tournament — none other than W. Earl Brown, better known as Dan Dority, and the incredible Robin Weigert, Emmy nominee for her portrayal of Calamity Jane.
I've known Earl for a couple of years but I just met Robin over the summer when she was among the actors who visited here in June. We sat next to each other at the Sunday night banquet, during which a number of the actors got up on the Charlie Utter Theater stage and either performed or just expressed their gratitude to the town for the way they were treated during their visit.
At one point she started telling me a rap poem she had composed that was so creative and funny that I urged her to record it. In fact, I offered to put a music track behind it in my studio just for fun if she could somehow get the vocal track to me. Then Hawkeye Henson got on stage and asked me to accompany him, so I did. Then he said "You do one." So I did. Then he played another one. Then he told me to play another one, so I did. Where was my trusty digital video camera during all this? In the case on the stage. I was so excited about performing with and in front of the Deadwood actors that I plumb forgot all about taping.
Just when I finished my second song, who should come up to the stage but Robin Weigert, and said "Let's do the rap." So to my guitar accompaniment, she did her hilarious rap, much to the delight of the packed house (as I recall, it was somewhat of a parady of Eminem, his attitude towards women, and his general persona). Not having that on tape was probably my biggest disappointment of the whole weekend.
When it was over and we returned to the dinner table, my wife Mary said “Where’s the camera?” “Oh shit,” I said, and retrieved it just in time for her to tape the rest of the night’s activities, which included the comedy routine by Franklin Ajaye (Samuel Fields, The Nigger General), which is linked on the website video clips page, a comedy performance by Sean Bridgers (Johnny Burns) and Pasha Lychnikov (Blazanov), thank-you speeches by Titus Welliver (Silas Adams) and Peter Jason (Con Stapleton), and the grand finale performance by the entire cast and myself of Earl Brown’s song “Deadwood Hoedown,” which is also linked on the video clips page.
Anyway, to make a short story long, since I’ve heard that Robin is coming back to town all I can think about is somehow getting her rap performance recorded so I can share it on the podcast. That would be just awesome. I hope you will all have the opportunity to hear this masterpiece of rhyme and humor. I’ll do my best to bring it to you.
